Ristretto

12/07/2019

Why should scientists care about science communication? Why is training science communication skills so important? How can social media help scientists? We discuss these issues with Dr Martijn Peters, a scientist who has become a Science Communication Officer and an expert in ! Check the full (longer) interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tefU2V0t0u4

11/06/2019

BP is launching today its 2019 Statistical Energy Review. ☢️☀️🔥💨💧Looking at the 2018 edition, we've realised they used a very 'typical' display to depict World energy consumption by source: the stacked area graph. Other institutions, like the International Energy Agency (IEA), often show energy trends with very similar displays. However, there are several problems with this graph, namely:
▪️ A colourblind person would not be able to distinguish the colours and therefore read the legend.
▪️ It's very complicated to 'isolate' the evolution of one particular energy source. For example, would you be able to say by how much coal increased?
▪️ Specific events for a certain energy source cannot be distinguished. Look at the decrease due to the financial crisis in 2009. Can you see whether renewables were affected?
💡What would be an alternative?💡
1️⃣Don't stack but show instead the evolution of each energy source. A simple line graph (with a high data-ink ratio) serves. Now it's clear: the crisis didn't affect renewables.
2️⃣Compare the growth of each energy source to the total energy consumption. Here we suggest using small multiples and highlighting each energy source at a time. This reveals a lot: coal and oil increased in 2017, but at a lower rate than the total energy consumption. Renewables' growth clearly beats any other energy source.
➡️➡️What do YOU think? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
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If you'd like to get more insights into data visualisation, join our upcoming training on the 28th of June in Brussels! 😁

27/05/2019

Post-election day and we're flooded with graphs everywhere showing the results. But are these graphical displays effective in transmitting the key messages? We've re-worked the graph plotted by Le Soir (L'Echo and Lalibre.be have used similar ones) for the Federal Belgian elections. In our example, we believe that the key messages are directly clearly seen: The Greens (Ecolo + Groen), the Vlaams Belang extremists and the far-left PTB*PVDA have invaded the Parliament while the N-VA looses its privileged position.
What do YOU think? Which graph do you prefer? Leave your opinion in the comments, we'd love to hear it!

23/05/2019

Agile methodology has revolutionised project management in industry: but what is its potential for academia? We've joined forces with Laura Pirro and are looking for professors and students willing to try Agile for research. Learn all the details in our new post!

Posted on by MarinaReady to try Agile for research? Join our upcoming study A PhD (or any research project) can feel at times as long and tiring as running a marathon. Yet, as we explained in this post, there are techniques you can use to alleviate the pain and turn your project into a series of dyn...

23/05/2019

Ristretto is now also on instagram 😁
Follow us there to get tips and tricks on science communication and information on our activities!

8 Followers, 50 Following, 2 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Ristretto.black (.black)

21/05/2019

In our quest for effective ways to begin a presentation, Prof. Ward De Paepe shows us what you should and shouldn't do when you start a scientific talk. We recommend watching the full video, there might be some bloopers at the end 🤪

17/05/2019

Graphical displays not only allow you to plot your data. If effectively used, they can help you further interpret your results and discover new conclusions. Join our independently organised 'Figures of evidence' training to learn how to unveil the real value of your data!
☕️When? Friday 28th June 9h-17h
☕️Where? Co-station Brussels, just by the cathedral
☕️Price: 195euros per person, including lunch
☕️Max. 15 people, don't miss your chance!

Independently organised training Figures of evidence: uncover the real value of your data by making effective graphs Co-station, Brussels,  Friday 28th of June 2019 Register The beauty of a graphical display doesn’t lie on its looks or its design, but on how effectively it transmits a message. Mo...

08/05/2019

After 3 days of fruitful writing and trainings, today we’ve wrapped up our Bootcamp. THANKS to all the participants for their involvement and the very nice discussions we’ve shared these days, it’s been an amazing experience! We already look forward to the next edition!

07/05/2019

And day 2 of the Writing Bootcamp is over! Today we mixed writing sessions with interactive lectures on writing style and how to build effective paragraphs. In between we even walked for 1h around the beautiful surroundings🌲🏃‍♀️ and in the evening we spent some relaxing time at the spa 🏊‍♀️🧘‍♀️ Tomorrow more on productivity! 💪

06/05/2019

Our Writing Bootcamp has already started! The participants are already busy with their writing tasks. We will spend three days with them exploring how to effectively structure scientific documents, refine writing style and increase productivity. And we’ll get a lot of writing done 📝😊

23/04/2019

By trying to be objective in academic writing, we sometimes attribute human actions to objects that cannot undertake them, like articles, reviews or experiments. Learn more about anthropomorphism and how to avoid it with our new post!

Posted on by MarinaAnthropomorphism or the art of humanising nonhuman subjects Academic writing should be clear and objective. In the pursue of objectivity, some believe that by using the first person and introducing ‘I’ or ‘we’ in their text, the outcome will not sound as rigorous or formal...

18/04/2019

Starting a scientific presentation is not easy: you only have a few seconds to capture the attention of your audience. Prof. Julien Blondeau shows us in this video how to effectively begin a speech with an example from his own work.